As a pastor, the Rev. David Butler reaches out to people with a message. But Butler’s words are not only confined to the pulpit.

Butler, 56, pastor of Gorham’s First Parish Congregational Church, is a moderately successful playwright. Two of the five plays he’s written have been produced on stage, and he’s waiting to hear about another currently under consideration by five theater companies.

Preaching or writing, Butler’s aim is to reach and change people. “Most are looking for a positive change in their life, a purpose, a presence of God,” Butler said. “People who go to the theater are looking for something to affect them.”

Butler hopes that those who attend one of his plays leave with a deeper insight. “A good play plunges you into those ‘why’ questions,” Butler said. “It helps you understand why we are and who we are.”

“Playwriting is so much fun, creating a living breathing thing on stage,” said Butler, who wrote his first play in 1992. “It’s a passion.”

Themes are personal

Butler, who has been pastor of Gorham’s oldest church for nine years, has diversified talents. He has been a professional chef in New York and written two books. He described himself as a “great fan” of British author Charles Dickens.

In Gorham, Butler is an historian of church and town and their intertwined beginnings. As the church pastor, Butler was instrumental in a successful drive to return Gorham’s restored town clock to the church following its repair.

“He’s well spoken and well researched,” said parishioner Walton Brann.

Besides writing, he’s acted, too. He once helped found a small theater company in Boston and has played summer stock theater in Massachusetts, where he served as a pastor at three churches at various times.

In his play, “The Grand O’Neal,” produced this year for the St. Patrick’s Day season by the American Irish Repertoire Ensemble in Portland, Butler filled the role of a character he created. “I played a drunk,” Butler said.

The show played for two weeks at Portland Performing Arts Center and single performances in Auburn and Boothbay Harbor. Susan Reilly, managing director at the American Irish Repertoire Ensemble, said the play touched the audience, and she described the play as warm and funny.

“People loved it. He’s a great storyteller,” Reilly said.

Themes for his works are often based on personal situations.

“You understand the world through the lens of your own experience,” Butler said.

His play “The Grand O’Neal” is about an American who travels to Ireland searching for family roots. Butler and his wife, Maureen, who is a professional actress, are both of Irish heritage. “Irish theater is a love,” said Butler, whose grandparents were Irish immigrants.

The couple traveled to Ireland to discover their Irish roots and even has been granted Irish citizenship in addition to being U.S. citizens.

On a sabbatical to Ireland, Butler befriended a rector of an ancient Irish church. The rector blessed Butler with the opportunity to read from a new prayer book when it was introduced on national TV in Ireland from St. Nicholas Church in Galway.

Spiritual crucible

Performing runs through Butler’s veins. Butler once led his First Parish 48-member choir to Galway. They appeared in four concerts there besides singing in a church service.

Walton Brann and his wife, Patricia, attended a production of “The Grand O’Neal” that raised money for the choir’s trip. “He’s very believable,” said Patricia Brann, who praised Butler’s acting ability as “pretty good.”

As a playwright, Butler has observed the difference between writing dialogue and hearing it performed. He said he rewrote his play, “The High Priest of Infinity,” four times in the first three weeks of rehearsal for a 1992 Boston production.

“Writing a play is a much more interesting process than any other kind,” Butler said.

“The High Priest of Infinity” is the memoir of a young man, Butler said, growing up in a family “ripped apart by alcoholism and violence” in the 1950s.

His latest work, written this spring, is “Terminal Bar,” a story of an Irish immigrant in 1927. Butler’s character rebelled against the Catholic church and rediscovered his life after a great tragedy.

Butler said each performance of a play is unique.

He described producing a play as an emotional, spiritual crucible.

“Something magic happens,” he said. “You draw energy from an audience.”

Rev. David Butler, high priest of playwright